The present invention relates generally to production of layered structures with lamination. For example, the layered structures can be light-interactive devices such as photosensing arrays.
A multitude of layered structures produced with lamination have been proposed for many different uses. For example, Someya, T., Kato, Y., Iba, S., Noguchi, Y., Sekitani, T., Kawaguchi, H., and Sakurai, T., “Integration of Organic FETs With Organic Photodiodes for a Large Area, Flexible, and Lightweight Sheet Image Scanners”, IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices, Vol. 52, No. 11, November 2005, pp. 2502-2511 describe a manufacturing process for image scanners in which an organic FET matrix and a photodiode matrix are manufactured separately on different plastic films and then laminated with each other using a silver paste patterned by a microdispenser or using anisotropic conductive films.
Granström, M., Petritsch, K., Arias, A. C., Lux, A., Andersson, M. R., and Friend, R. H., “Laminated fabrication of polymeric photovoltaic diodes”, Nature, Vol. 295, September 1998, pp., 257-260, describe laminated diodes assembled by forming a POPT-rich film on an ITO- or PEDOT-coated glass and an MEH-CN-PPV-rich film on an aluminium or calcium-coated glass substrate and by performing lamination at an elevated temperature.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,197,663 describes a process for fabricating integrated circuit devices that have thin film transistors (TFTs) and an electrical interconnect structure. Some constituents of TFTs are formed on a first structure, at least the interconnect structure is formed on a second structure, and the two are laminated to form the device with fully formed TFTs.
Loo Y.-L., Someya, T., Baldwin, K. W., Bao, Z., Ho, P., Dodabalapur, A., Katz, H. E., and Rogers, J. A., “Soft, conformable electrical contacts for organic semiconductors: High-resolution plastic circuits by lamination,” PNAS, Vol. 99, No. 16, Aug. 6, 2002, pp. 10252-10256, describe a technique in which a thin elastomeric film on a plastic substrate supports electrodes and interconnections. This substrate is laminated against another plastic substrate that supports gate, dielectric, and semiconductor levels, establishing effective electrical contacts and completing the circuits.
Rogers, J. A., Bao, Z., Baldwin, K., Dodabalapur, A., Crone, B., Raju, V. R., Kuck, V., Katz, H., Amundson, K., Ewing, J., and Drzaic, P., “Paper-like electronic displays: Large-area rubber-stamped plastic sheets of electronics and microencapsulated electrophoretic inks,” PNAS, Vol. 98, No. 9, Apr. 24, 2001, pp. 4835-4840, describe production of displays that include circuits on plastic substrates integrated with microencapsulated electrophoretic “inks” to form sheets. For example, a semiconductor is deposited on top of a printed substrate to produce a functional backplane circuit. Annealing is performed, primarily to reduce off currents and variations in on currents, and, in some cases, transistors are encapsulated with a thin layer of low temperature SiNx.
It would be advantageous to have improved techniques for layered structures produced by lamination.